Unladylike Rules of Attraction by Amita Murray

Author:Amita Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2024-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

20

A few days later, Anya found herself singing in Dowager Crowther’s Drawing Room. Lila hadn’t exaggerated. The dowager was a colorful character. The house, or what she had seen of it, was jangling with light and color. There were enormous chandeliers with candles trying to jostle others out of the way. If those weren’t enough light, then wall sconces added to the brightness. The wallpaper at the top of each wall had a large panel of gold swirls that framed snow-white swans facing inward toward a chalice. Beneath this panel was a teeming woodland scene, complete with birds flying in and out through dense foliage. There were large bowls of colorful fruit on every available surface, and glasses of ratafia and lemonade.

She was singing, yes, but not with her usual absorption. Her connection with herself was missing today. She was mouthing the words but not feeling the music. She was surprised the guests weren’t ignoring her or carrying on with their conversations. Lady Budleigh wasn’t there.

Anya kept looking to the front door of Dowager Crowther’s house. She couldn’t see it from the front parlor, where the small company—all women—was gathered, but that wasn’t stopping her eyes from darting in the right direction. She felt twitchy. She kept wishing that they weren’t doing this tonight. What had made her think that it was a remotely good idea? The number of things that could go wrong was enormous. Yet at the same time, all she wanted was to get it over with. To carry out the plan and put the whole thing to rest. But that could only happen if Lady Budleigh actually showed up.

She, Lila, and Damian had each at different times wondered out loud what would happen if Lady Budleigh didn’t show up. But Anya at least hadn’t taken the possibility seriously. She’d pictured the evening so many times, what would be an undoubtedly stiff conversation with Lady Budleigh and the walk out of the house at the end of the evening, that she couldn’t believe right now that Lady Budleigh wouldn’t show up and none of what she had imagined would come about.

The uneasy questions about Linus’s part in the plan lingered too. Damian was sure he could trust the man. He had saved him when Linus was a boy. Damian could sense her doubts and he had told her all about Linus’s past as a pickpocket, Linus’s distrust of humanity, his unique code of right and wrong. Instead of reassuring her, as she knew Damian intended, it only made her more uneasy. She could believe Linus meant well, perhaps, but what if he was careless? And his loyalty didn’t stretch to Anya, after all. What if his part of the evening went wrong? She had tried to bring it up once or twice with Damian, but she could see he didn’t like her doubts about Linus, and she had tried to drop it.

She tried to focus on the parlor. Dowager Crowther was someone who caught everyone’s attention, and it wasn’t just her color-clashing house.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.